Rainstorms

A few days ago, my mom and dad decided that we should go to the beach, and we all thought it was a great idea, because it was a warm day and all of us were sweating! We got into our swimsuits, put my four youngest siblings in two double-strollers, packed up some beach-toys, and started walking.

As we walked, we kept glancing over in the direction of the lake; dark, angry clouds were rolling towards us from over the lake. We walked quickly, hoping either that the storm would pass by us, or that we would at least get a few minutes at the beach, and a dry walk home. We got to the beach entrance, and ran down the sand to the water. Above the lake, dark grey clouds brooded; a long, caterpillar-like cloud seemed to be the leader of them; pulling them towards the shore, and towards us.

As I stood in awe, looking up at the approaching storm clouds, and listening to the thunder, I knew I had a choice between being afraid, or being amazed. I knew I could flee from the storm, or run into it.

I ran into it.

I ran into the water and stood in it; I was not afraid. I knew that God protected me, God protected my family, and nothing could hurt us.

A storm approaching our old house

Some of my brothers and my dad, ran out until the water reached their waists, and dove under, we were all laughing as me and my mom ran out into the water. As soon as everyone who wanted to get wet was wet, we turned around and started running home, we all started feeling little sprinkles of rain, so we packed the four youngest into the strollers again, threw some towels over them, and continued running. The rain started pounding down, and I ran as fast as I could. The rain stung my face and neck, so I covered my face with my arms and kept running, I smiled and laughed all the way home.

When my whole family got home, we all gathered in the garage; everyone was soaked and laughing. We all got changed and got cozy for a family movie-night, but when we looked outside again, it had stopped raining completely! So, we hung up our wet swimsuits and let them dry on the clothesline.

A few days earlier, my dad took six of my younger siblings for a bike-ride, to our local community center to play at the playground there, and two of my other brothers were out looking for edible wild-plants. That left me, my mom, and my older brother Dorian at home; we thought it would be nice if we could bike down to the park with a picnic lunch, and eat it there. So my mom packed up a delicious lunch, and sent it with Dorian, who unicycled to the park a little before be biked there. After Dorian left, we finished up a few things, strapped on our helmets, got on our bikes, and headed off!

When we got to the park, we found everyone playing happily on the playground, but we had just parked our bikes, when we started feeling little drops of rain. I took my one-year-old sister Nova out of the baby-swing, and ran to the nearby pavilion; it looked like it had only been made a year before, and had a bunch of nice, new, (and perfectly long) picnic-tables. We sat at one of the tables, and started eating lunch. Outside it started raining heavily, it rained the whole time we were eating lunch, but then the rain stopped, and the sun came out, just as we were finishing up!

I find it interesting that the first time God made it rain, He perfectly timed it so that we would be under a shelter the whole time it rained, and the rain didn’t hinder us in any way, and the second time, He perfectly timed it that we would be out during the rain, and have shelter after the rain was over!

I love rainstorms, and I love being in them, I love hearing the thunder, and seeing the lightning, and seeing the plants watered. When there is a thunderstorm, the grass and trees always seem more bright, green and alive! Every time I hear thunder, I think of how mighty, and powerful, and strong our God is! So strong that even storms are under His control!